Skip to main content
Press Release

Locust Grove Man Pleads Guilty To Oxycodone Conspiracy

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of Virginia

Defendant sold drugs outside Dumfries day care center that was owned and operated by his wife

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – Ralph Caldwell, 38, of Locust Grove, Virginia, pleaded guilty today to conspiring to distribute oxycodone.

Dana J. Boente, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, and Valerie Parlave, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, made the announcement after the plea was accepted by U.S. District Judge Liam O’Grady.

Caldwell was indicted on May 8, 2014, by a federal grand jury on charges of conspiracy to distribute oxycodone and distribution of oxycodone.  Caldwell faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine when he is sentenced on September 5, 2014 at 9:00 a.m.

According to court records, from January 2011 to March 2014, Caldwell distributed oxycodone to customers throughout Prince William County, Virginia.  As part of the conspiracy, Caldwell and others used the area near the Little Angels Day Care, a children’s day care center in Dumfries, Virginia, to sell oxycodone and arrange transactions.  Caldwell told one of his co-conspirators—who was both the parent of a child being supervised at the day care and one of Caldwell’s suppliers—that payment for childcare services could be rendered in the form of a negotiated amount of oxycodone.  Caldwell’s wife owned and operated the day care.

As part of the statement of facts entered with the plea, Caldwell admitted that he conspired to distribute oxycodone and that he sold oxycodone to a confidential informant on three separate occasions in February 2014 at locations within Dumfries and Triangle, Virginia.

This case was investigated by the FBI’s Washington Field Office, with assistance from the Prince William County Police Department.  Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin Lowell and Assistant U.S. Attorney Gene Rossi are prosecuting the case.

A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia at http://www.justice.gov/usao/vae.  Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia at http://www.vaed.uscourts.gov or on https://pcl.uscourts.gov.
Updated March 18, 2015